Spinnakers in all the colours associated with Easter filled Pillsbury Sound today as hundreds of sailors completed their final day of racing at the 2005 International Rolex Regatta in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

The 32-year-old event, which started on Friday, hosted 79 boats and served up superb tropical weather conditions, culminating with today's warm 12-15 knot breezes under skies that matched the sapphire blue of the water below. At day's end, on the beach at St. Thomas Yacht Club, winners in nine classes received Rolex Submariner watches as prizes, a tradition that, along with stiff competition and festive parties ashore, sets this Caribbean regatta apart from the others.

Today's lone distance race, with multiple legs through and around the islands, was 'do or die' for two Melges 24s battling in Spinnaker Racing Class 3. Mistress Quickly, owned by Guy ELDRIDGE of Roadtown, Tortola, British Virgin Islands, trailed Don Q Limon, skippered by Enrique TORRUELLA of Guayanabo, Puerto Rico, by one point going into today's races but hunted down Don Q Limon at the start, ultimately finishing second to Don Q Limon's third. In overall scoring, the boats shared the same number of points but Mistress Quickly won the regatta on a tiebreaker.

'We got the better of the start today,' said ELDRIDGE, noting that his skipper-national match racing champion Barry PARKIN (GBR) used match racing methods to control Don Q Limon and force the boat to an undesirable position beneath them. ELDRIDGE has been aboard a winning boat at the International Rolex Regatta before but gets the Rolex watch for his efforts this time. 'I'm real pumped about that,' said ELDRIDGE.

The start was also intense today for Spinnaker Racing Class 2 winner Temptress, an IMX45 skippered by Richard SHULMAN of Riverside, Rhode Island. Temptress fouled second-place finisher Caccia Alla Volpe, the Vallicelli 44 skippered by Carlo FALCONE of Antigua and performed two quick penalty turns to exonerate itself. Despite the setback, which placed it at the back of the class, Temptress went on to win the race.

'We played the current a lot better than the others on both windward legs,' said tactician Dan NERI (USA). 'On the first one, we made big gains by going in near the rocks; then on our spinnaker run we were in adverse current, so we made note of it and played it to our advantage on the next beat.'Caccia Alla Volpe finished in second for the race and the regatta, four points behind the leader.

Puerto Rico's Fraito LUGO, sailing Orion in the J/24 class, took his victory cleanly and easily today. 'We were so far ahead, finishing ten minutes ahead of the fleet,' said LUGO. 'We knew to sail close to the shore on the left.' Even though LUGO had to take a DNS (Did Not Start) in the first race of the series for going to the wrong race circle, he and his crew of nine years went on to win five of their next six races. The performance gave the team the top spot on the leaderboard and LUGO, a multiple past winner at this event, his sixth Rolex watch. Seven points behind in second overall was another Puerto Rican entry Urayo, skippered by Gilberto RIVERA.

Another early series leader, Puerto Rican sailing star Enrique FIGUEROA, also secured his class victory today with a brilliant performance in the Beach Cat class. The four-time Olympian and world champion, sailing with his wife Carla aboard their Hobie 16 Suzuki/Red Bull, caught the biggest cat in the fleet, the 20-foot CaribbeanAuto Mart, skippered by Tom AINGER of St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, in the race's last 200 yards to claim a first-to-finish victory.

'We don't normally cross the finish line first, because we are one of the smallest boats,' said FIGUEROA, who nevertheless had previously strung together four victories in as many races by using a handicap rating to correct out ahead of his adversaries. 'We normally just work to keep as close as possible, but they flipped, we passed them, they caught us again, and then we passed them at the end.' The episode will stand out as one to remember for FIGUEROA, even though he has won this event more times than he can remember. 'This year has been the best ever,' he added, commenting on a new mix of racing-around the buoys on the first day followed by two distance races yesterday and today's Pillsbury Sound race. 'Yesterday we were all a bit tired, but that's what you come here to do, these kinds of races.'

FIGUEROA finished a full eleven points ahead of Exodus, a Hobie 16 sailed by another Enrique FIGUEROA (no relation) of Puerto Rico.

In other action, Tom HILL's Puerto Rican entrant, Titan 12, turned in a seventh victory today to top off the seven-race series held for Spinnaker Racing Class 1, while Lost Horizon II, skippered by James DOBBS of Antigua, posted his fifth bullet in the six races for Spinnaker Racing Class 4.

The IC-24 sailors did their own thing on a separate race circle today, turning in three buoy races to complete a nine-race series. The boats are uniquely altered J/24s and have become hot commodities for island racing, quenching the competitive thirst of some of the area's best local talent. Winning was Sea Hawk, skippered by three-time Olympian Robby HIRST (BVI) and his brother Michael.

In Spinnaker Racer/Cruiser Class, Lazy Dog, skippered by Sergio SAGRAMOSO (PUR), topped the fleet, while in Non-Spinnaker Racing Class, Antonio and Ellen SANPERE from Christiansted, US Virgin Islands, prevailed to win in Cayennita. Antonio sailed in the very first International Rolex Regatta in 1974. Said a delighted Antonio: 'I guess you could say I've been waiting 32 years to win this Rolex.'

Tom Burton (AUS) and Alison Young (GBR) hit the right note in the Laser and Laser Radial at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as they took out the top honours and qualification spots to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final.

It was double Australian gold in the Paralympic classes. Matt Bugg (AUS) came out on top in the 2.4mR whilst London 2012 Paralympic SKUD18 gold medallists Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) were triumphant in the two person keelboat.

Lithuania's Juozas Bernotas came out on top in the Men's RS:X whilst Russia's Stefania Elfutina was triumphant in the Women's RS:X. Both sailors claim the first Abu Dhabi ISAF Sailing World Cup Final spots whilst Jock Calvert (AUS) and Joanna Sterling (AUS) picked up the Oceanic spots for the Emirati finale.

There was some fast paced action in the 49er and 49erFX Medal Races at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen (AUS) and Maia & Ragna Agerup (NOR) claimed the honours and Abu Dhabi final spots.

A tight group of five young Papua New Guinean (PNG) Laser sailors are stepping up their 2015 Pacific Games competition program using this week's ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne. PNG is one of 33 countries represented at the important Oceanic event, the largest Olympic sailing regatta in the southern hemisphere.

Melbourne, Australia will host the final Rio 2016 Paralympic Games qualification regatta in 2015. With just under one year until the event, the 2015 IFDS Worlds was launched at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne.

ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne kick starts the journey to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with qualification spots and top ranking points available in the Australian city.

Four boats in the Volvo Ocean Race celebrated rounding the venerated landmark of Cape Horn on Monday, a pleasure cruelly denied Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) after the Chinese boat's mast was broken early in a dramatic day on Leg 5.

The wind played dirty tricks all day in Palma on the sailors and race committees who had to juggle with big shifts and different pressure. From 4 to 20 knots, and reaching 40 in some gusts, the wind turned around the bay playing with everybody's nerves.

Ghosting across the line in the inky blackness of a Mediterranean spring night, finally slicing through the finish line set on the very waters where some 40 odd years ago he cut his teeth as a young, aspiring sailor harbouring great dreams, at 01:47:00hrs local time Guillermo Altadill and his talented, ever reliable Chilean co-skipper Jose Muñoz secured second placed in this third edition of the Barcelona World Race, the round the world race for two crew which left the Catalan capital on December 31st 2014.

Algoa Bay brought lighter conditions on Sunday, and after a postponement waiting for the wind to settle, the race got underway in 7 knots of breeze from the south-east. Ted Conrads and Brian Haines from the USA were the pathfinders, and opened up the gate for the fleet as they sailed out to the right-hand side of the course.